The US managed to appear to ‘win’ the first Cold War by dividing the USSR’s leadership and outmanoeuvring it to make mistakes until it dissolved ‘itself’. The USSR wasn’t prepared for the internal betrayals, the consequence of materially improving the living conditions of a large section of the population that wanted more luxury that was possible within the then-arrangements and which created liberals 🤮. At the same time, the US only ‘won’ if the Cold War was against the USSR and not against communists/socialists in general. And as socialism/communism were not – because they cannot – be defeated, the US didn’t really win. It declared an end to history while letting China develop in plain sight 🤣 and having learned the lessons of the USSR’s destruction.
China is becoming self sufficient while the US (and Europe) remain(s) overly dependant on China. The US is so far trying and generally failing at causing rifts between China and the rest of BRICS+ and the BRI members/partners. Under imperialism, it’s all zero sum. A loss to the US is a gain for China. And a win for China is a loss for the US. It works both ways but imperialism can only ignore its contradictions for so long. The US isn’t doing much winning lately. I don’t see that trend changing.
So it’s not just that China is ‘winning’ the Cold War (tbh I was being a little hyperbolic), it’s also that capitalism cannot be sustained for much longer. Even if it finds a way to resolve its ‘ordinary’ class contradictions, capitalists have absolutely no solutions to address, reverse, or respond to climate change (maybe this is as a class contradiction?). That means it’s also a matter of logic and survival: either China is winning or it doesn’t matter; because China winning is socialism winning and China losing is capitalism winning.
If socialism wins, humanity has a future, which could be great or grim but it is a future. If capitalism wins, I don’t know if we have enough time for other socialist powers to develop enough to prevent climate catastrophe. I’m an optimist, though: communism won’t fail us.
(Maybe I also partly answered your question, above?)
I’ll try to be brief 😬
The US managed to appear to ‘win’ the first Cold War by dividing the USSR’s leadership and outmanoeuvring it to make mistakes until it dissolved ‘itself’. The USSR wasn’t prepared for the internal betrayals, the consequence of materially improving the living conditions of a large section of the population that wanted more luxury that was possible within the then-arrangements and which created liberals 🤮. At the same time, the US only ‘won’ if the Cold War was against the USSR and not against communists/socialists in general. And as socialism/communism were not – because they cannot – be defeated, the US didn’t really win. It declared an end to history while letting China develop in plain sight 🤣 and having learned the lessons of the USSR’s destruction.
China is becoming self sufficient while the US (and Europe) remain(s) overly dependant on China. The US is so far trying and generally failing at causing rifts between China and the rest of BRICS+ and the BRI members/partners. Under imperialism, it’s all zero sum. A loss to the US is a gain for China. And a win for China is a loss for the US. It works both ways but imperialism can only ignore its contradictions for so long. The US isn’t doing much winning lately. I don’t see that trend changing.
So it’s not just that China is ‘winning’ the Cold War (tbh I was being a little hyperbolic), it’s also that capitalism cannot be sustained for much longer. Even if it finds a way to resolve its ‘ordinary’ class contradictions, capitalists have absolutely no solutions to address, reverse, or respond to climate change (maybe this is as a class contradiction?). That means it’s also a matter of logic and survival: either China is winning or it doesn’t matter; because China winning is socialism winning and China losing is capitalism winning.
If socialism wins, humanity has a future, which could be great or grim but it is a future. If capitalism wins, I don’t know if we have enough time for other socialist powers to develop enough to prevent climate catastrophe. I’m an optimist, though: communism won’t fail us.
(Maybe I also partly answered your question, above?)